The present invention relates to a furrow opener and agricultural seed planter, and more particular to a minimum tillage type planter.
In certain types of agriculture, and in particular the growing of wheat and barley and other cereal grains, minimum tillage methods of agriculture commonly called "no-till" tillage has been used to reduce moisture evaporation losses over conventional plowing type tillage. The advantages of "no-till" tillage include conservation of fuel costs and labor for the reason that less working of the soil is required. Further, since the ground is broken only minimally, there is little wind and water erosion which would otherwise occur with normal plowing type tillage. Other advantages of minimum type tillage are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,122.
Many "no-till" methods and apparatus are known in the art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,122 which relates to an attachment for removing residue in front of a planter. See also British Pat. No. 1,150,723 which describes a coulter device for seed drills, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,196 which describes a combined seed drill and fertilizer applicator, together with U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,456 which describes a furrow opener and apparatus for no-tillage transplanters and planters.
The known "no-till" planters utilize two coulters mounted on two separate axles to open a furrow for planting seed such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,952 to Murray. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,456 to Morrison Jr. which shows two coulters mounted on two separate axles which open a furrow for planting.
It has been found that when fertilizer is drilled into the ground at the same time seed is drilled, only a small amount of fertilizer can be placed in the same furrow as the seed because otherwise germination of the seed would be damaged. Therefore it has been found that fertilizer should be placed in a separate furrow in the ground at a distance from the seed, preferably slightly below or to one side of the seed furrow when the planting is being done. This process is known as banding fertilizer. In the known apparatus, the banding is done with a separate coulter which is positioned to make a furrow to one side of the seed furrow or positioned to make a furrow at a deeper level than the seed furrow. The former type of apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,196 to Anderson.
With conventional seed and fertilizer apparatus used for "no-till" agriculture, the seed coulter and fertilizer coulter trail one another, as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,196 to Anderson.
Because the present known "no-till" apparatus includes coulters that are trailing other coulters, the longitudinal extent of the planter apparatus is greater than would be the case if the coulters were not trailing one another. This increased length creates problems when the tractor is pulling these coulters over hills and also when the tractor draws the planter in a curved path such a when the planter is being turned.
With the present invention, many of the disadvantages of the known "no-till" planters are eliminated.